Unknown Time - Unknown Season : Home
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- Zachari Ragnarok ~
"Haha~," I let out a heartfelt chuckle as I watched Vasilias go to town on the bison, scarfing down huge chunks of meat like it was nothing. -He definitely is his father's son…-
Silently curling around the 'golden nest' with a warm smile, I finally laid down to watch him eat while keeping just enough distance to not disturb him.
But while I tried my best to keep quiet, it turned out to be far more difficult than I expected…
"Pfft-" Immediately averting my eyes from him and covering my face with my wing, I barely managed to keep myself from laughing.
Watching him stick his head up to his shoulders through the tiny hole in the bison's hide was just too funny.
"A-ahem." Slowly lowering my wing as I regained my composure, I found him staring straight into my soul with a messy, blood-covered body like he just slaughtered a village of orcs. "Sorry, sweetie, it's nothing." Barely managing to keep myself from laughing again, I wrapped my tail around the nest and rubbed his head with it. *Pat* "You can continue eating…"
Almost immediately, his expression lit up, and he threw himself back into the side of the bison with a joyfully curled tail. -He's so cute…-
But while indescribably adorable, the longer I watched him, the more I found myself fascinated. -Mother always told me hatchlings were troublesome…- Finally laying my head down, I stared into the flowing purple glow in his scales and let my thoughts wander.
-I guess she could have just wanted me to be prepared for anything, but…- Watching him rip out another chunk of meat, I took a moment to look into his eyes, but no matter how many times I looked, instead of seeing the unfocused, wide 'fish eyes' usually associated with hatchlings, I saw sharp, heightened pupils with the glow of intent.
-Considering how fast he learned how to walk.. maybe…- The tip of my tail slowly swayed with joy as my gaze turned to the pile of treasure I was curled around. -The 'golden nest' must have really brought luck to my clutch!-
The gentle wag in my tail quickly spread as I happily turned back and watched Vasilias continue mercilessly devouring the bison.
But even with my overflowing joy, it didn't take long for the drowsiness that had accumulated over the last few months of sleepless nights to catch up to me.
Usually staying up a few more hours would be nothing, after all I had been awake for nearly three months at that point.
However, the longer I stared into Vasilias's scales, the more my mind relaxed, to the point that even with the adrenaline, and excitement of seeing my child's first steps, I simply couldn't keep my eyes open…
Until eventually, my blinks started lasting longer.. and longer.. and my focus on Vasilias drifted away…
At least.. it did for a short moment.
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- Vasilias Ragnarok ~
(A Bit Later)
*Thump-plap* Sitting myself down in a puddle of blood, I leaned back and licked around my teeth with a satisfied expression. -I wish there was more…-
Looking over what was left of the huge bison with a predatory gaze, I tried to find even the smallest patch of the gloriously marbled meat I had been eating, but to no avail.
The bison was giant, likely weighing just under a ton, meaning I ate at least a few hundred kilograms of meat, seemingly many, many times my body weight, but besides feeling an indescribable satiety, not much seemed to change. -I just have to wonder where all that mass is going…-
It was like my stomach was a nuclear reactor that just incinerated everything it touched, and while I did feel quite a bit heavier, I didn't feel sluggish, nor did I look fat. -How does that make any sense?-
Turning my curious gaze to Mother, a part of me couldn't help but want to ask her…
But thankfully, not only did my rationality scream at me for even letting the thought surface, she was already fast asleep. -R..right, what was I thinking…-
Although I hadn't given it much thought till that moment, I had to be careful how much intellect I showed out of worry that it would be too outside the norm. -Until I see what my sister's intellect is like, I should be careful about how I act…-
Plus, it wasn't like my questions were urgent, nor were they ones I couldn't answer myself. -Unless I'm in some other dimension, physics should still be the foundation of how the world works.. or at least part of it.. so, I'll just need to study things slowly over time…-
It would just take a while.
And, by the looks of things, time was not something I was short on.
Slowly coming to terms with that, my eyes began wandering around the room, and my curiosity did nothing but grow, seemingly limitlessly, as if the ropes tying it down were suddenly cut.
More closely inspecting the intricate carvings around the ceiling, depicting three colossal dragons around a single draconic deity, my mind raced with wonder and filled with questions.
No matter where I looked, whether at Mother or simply staring at the insignia on a polished gold coin, my thoughts did nothing but accelerate.
No matter what direction my focus was aimed, my mind raced to explain everything I looked at purely using my knowledge of biology and physics from Earth, but while it only raised questions and left me more perplexed, it caused an inexplicable excitement to well from the depths of my being.
For the first time since I was a child, the foundation of my understanding of the world was shaken to its core.
Before I knew it, the eyes I viewed the world through were given a different lens, and what I thought were the rules and limits of reality became just a small piece of the pie. -But I need to be careful…-
A world of unknowns was also a world of dangers, after all.
-But.. there shouldn't be anything too dangerous in here, right?- As my gaze wandered around the room it eventually found its way to the long, dark hallway Mother retrieved the bison from.
I couldn't see very far into it since my vision was still a little blurry, but that only made me more curious.
Quickly glancing over at Mother, I watched her take several slow, relaxed breaths, before looking back down the hall. -It shouldn't matter if I explore a bit while she sleeps, right?-
*Pat* *Pat* *Pat* *Pat* The gentle pat of my footsteps seemed to echo down the hall as I walked around the bison and continued into it.
It was incredibly dark, but with a bit of light from the den, it didn't take long for my eyes to adjust.
Unfortunately though, the hallway was shockingly empty. Without any furniture or special decor, the hallway was nothing more than a long straight path leading up to the colossal stone doors that appeared to lead outside.
However, while the hall seemed quite lame on my first pass, on my way back, my vision adjusted enough to see that the walls were covered in beautiful carvings, seemingly relating to the ones on the ceiling in the den. -Woah…-
From what I could tell, rather than depicting a story, they were depicting a lineage, with each carving filling the section of the wall between pillars. -Are these all our ancestors?-
However, the moment I questioned that, my gaze drifted toward the bottom of one of the pillars and my train of thought completely switched directions. -Is that.. a fountain?!-
Quickly trotting over to it, I found that, embedded in the ground at the bottom of each pillar was a small fountain engineered so precisely that the faintly steaming streams of water falling into it didn't make a ripple or even the slightest sound. -Wow…-
It was honestly quite fascinating, without the sound of a motor or anything mechanical, only my imagination could guess the water was coming from a hotspring or something.
But as I looked down into the fountain, instead of seeing something that could satisfy my curiosity, I found my reflection.. and froze.
The first thing I noticed was my eyes, with bewitching purple, faintly glowing irises, and vertical, slitted draconic pupils. -Woah…- Combined with the small horns around the crown of my head, I appeared to be quite the attractive dragon, to the point it made my wings twitch with joy.
But there was one problem.
-Oh my lord…- As my tunnel vision eased, I found that not just my face, but everything above my shoulders was completely coated in the thick, dried blood of the bison.
I looked like a monster straight out of a horror movie, and it made all my joy instantaneously turn into embarrassment. -Is that what Mom was laughing about?!-
I instinctively pulled in my legs and wings as if to make myself as small as possible before glaring at her in the den. -Why didn't she say anything?!-
Thinking nothing could go wrong, I swiftly slipped into the water in an attempt to clean myself up, and almost instantly it started steaming like it was boiling.
But.. it was rather comfortable. "Hooh…" Although I struggled a bit to stay afloat at first, it didn't take long to get the hang of things. -It might take a bit to get used to using my wings though…- *Plup*
However, after using the water to my advantage, I slowly started getting the hang of them. The only way to describe it was as if they were additional arms, with their spread and curvature being controlled similarly to a hand and fingers. -Interesting…-
But after playing around in the water for a while, I found that I was mostly cleaned up, and decided to finally get out.
*blub-SPLASH* Using a flap of my wings to jump over the small lip of the fountain, I made an elegant exit, but it came at the cost of splashing water into the hall. -Uh oh…-
Assuming it would all evaporate quickly, I tried to not pay it any mind and quickly started walking back to the den, ready for a nap.
However, the moment I came into the umbrella of the den's light, and my eyes adjusted, I found Mother's sharp, sky-blue eyes aimed straight at me.
As if instinctually panicking, my wings instantly clamped to my side and my posture lowered. -Uh oh…-
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- Zachari Ragnarok ~
(A Few Minutes Prior)
"Uwaaah…" Lethargically opening my eyes with a yawn, my gaze slowly drifted toward the bison expecting to see Vasilias still eating it, or sleeping soundly in the puddle of blood, but instead found the bison completely stripped of its meat.
-Oh my… Did he really eat all of that?- It was a very small bison, but for a hatchling, it was quite a lot of food. -But where did he run off to?-
*Vwoom* Using my aura to try and find his presence, I eventually found him a ways down the hall, seemingly exploring and inspecting the ancestry carvings on the walls.
He was certainly too young to understand what they were, but somehow, he seemed to almost appreciate them, giving each a moment of his time before moving to the next. -What an odd child…-
Keeping my eye on him as he idly walked about, I expected him to come straight back to the den, but after a moment, he suddenly trotted toward one of the pillars like he found something he was interested in."Hm?" -The fountain?-
It was a 'boil fountain', used to maintain the moisture in the den so that hatchlings' scales wouldn't dry out too quickly, and also give me an easier time controlling the nest's temperature. -That water is pretty hot though…-
Assuming he was just checking it out, I watched him peek his head down into the relatively shallow basin before immediately tensing up and freezing.
He was looking at his reflection.
But instead of getting nervous, thinking it was another dragon staring back at him, he seemed oddly happy before suddenly clamming up and looking toward me in the den. -Huh?-
It was a sight that made me freeze up. -He's.. embarrassed?- It meant he not only recognized that it was his reflection in the water, but understood that he was dirty.
-Wait…- My emotions immediately started draining from my face. -Did he.. already awaken his 'knowledge inheritance'?- My eyes instantly went wide as my mind essentially shut down.
The knowledge inheritance was basically a bundle of essential knowledge engrained in the minds of every dragon, containing all kinds of information from how to read and write countless languages, to some more basic information, like the concept of manners and cleanliness.
Typically though, that knowledge was not accessible until a certain age, usually around six to eight months old at the absolute fastest.
But while being faster typically was a good thing… -Awakening it so early means…- He was likely to die before he even had the chance to grow.
My eyes immediately locked on the pile of purple sand next to me with a detestful look. -If my baby dies because of that fucking artifact, I'm gonna have that damned kingdom raized…-
But while I was trapped within my own mind, a sound met my ears. *Plop*
-AH!- It was the sound of Vasilias falling into the fountain. -His scales can't handle that kind of heat yet!- In a panic, I jumped up, but as my head peeked into the hallway, I found him seemingly comfortably floating around, as if trying to teach himself how to swim.
-Huh? He's.. not distressed?- His scales had yet to harden and thermalize, so he shouldn't have had any kind of insulation from his scales.
Yet he looked quite comfortable. -What the…-
After eventually figuring out how to stay on the surface, he just kicked his little paws around and relaxed, only occasionally diving just under the water's surface to clean the blood off his scales, before inevitably hopping out. *Splash*
A part of me wanted to yell at him for being reckless, but another didn't even know what to think.
When he eventually walked into the room and noticed me staring at him, he immediately clammed up from guilt, knowing I caught him red-handed.
But.. I wasn't really sure what to do…